1. Field of the Disclosure
The present disclosure relates to a method for displaying Internet pages and, more specifically, to a method for displaying standardized Internet pages, for example using HTML protocol in handheld terminals with mobile radio access.
2. Description of the Related Art
The Internet is today a popular means of communication with user numbers which are rising exponentially. One of the most important applications on the Internet is the World Wide Web (WWW), which is operated on the basis of Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) (recently also XML—a protocol extension), see Dr. Sidnie Feit, TCP/IP, McGraw-Hill USA 1999, ISBN 0-07-022069-7, pp. 650 ff. The domestic or company personal computer (PC) is used as an access unit in this context. It is operated with an Internet browser (for example Microsoft Explorer or Netscape Navigator) and, when required, access software for Internet access (using an Internet Service Provider), which provides the “client application”. The remote station is a server or host computer on the Internet which provides the desired information via HTML pages. The HTML protocol is transmitted using TCP/IP protocol as means of transport. All protocols have been standardized by the IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force) and are constantly being extended.
As a result of ergonomic sensitization and falling prices on the appliances market, it is now possible to regard a 17-inch PC monitor with a resolution of 1024×768 pixels as standard.
These visual display units can display HTML pages excellently. Since it is not usual to pay for information on the Internet to date, the service providers make a living primarily from advertising revenue. Advertisements pop up as colorful still or moving images on the HTML pages, with use being made of the large-area monitor.
On the other hand, digital packet-oriented transmission services are currently being introduced in the mobile radio sector (GSM-GPRS, or future UMTS). These services allow TCP/IP protocols to be transmitted and allow rapid Internet access (Connect Heft 18, 24.08.200, page 15, Mit Tempo ins Netz [Speeding into the Network]). If a notebook or a PC with an ergonomic screen connected to the mobile radio (mobile phone) is not currently being used, but rather the display on the mobile terminal itself is being used as a visual display unit, considerable problems arise, however.
Apart from the fact that the technical opportunities for displaying HTML pages on the unit's display do not yet exist, unsolvable visual problems arise. The information displayed would simply be too small for it to be able to be read by the human eye. The human eye is physiologically no longer able to resolve the dense content of a screen with a 40 cm diagonal following a reduction to a format with a 3-6 cm diagonal, i.e. it is generally no longer possible to read such a page.
However, this means that the entire worldwide stock of Internet pages cannot be used for mobile operation with handheld terminals, such as mobile phones or PDAs (Personal Digital Assistant)!
This was identified in good time, which means that the industry devised a remedy. New protocols, such as WML (Wireless Markup Language) or WAP (Wireless Application Protocol) are being standardized. Connect Heft 18, 24.08.2000 (pp. 18 ff, WAP Report) gives an overview of the available services and the depiction quality of the displays. The basic method for wireless services is based on displaying reduced clearly readable information on the displays.
A drawback of the practice, however, is that the entire stock of HTML pages on the Internet cannot be used for this method and WAP pages need to be recreated and maintained separately.